Research on the integration of data warehouse, virtual reality and geographical information system in water resources management

Abstract

As the development of geographical information system (GIS), water resources information systems have been applied in water conservancy management increasingly. However, there are still some problems. Along with the improvement of hydrological telemetering systems, more and more data could be acquired. The inconsistencies in data, as well as bulk information processing would intensify the pressure of clients noticeably. Besides, water resources information systems are usually not intuitionistic enough, and it is difficult for users to recognize underlying surface features comprehensively. This paper explored the integration of data warehouse (DW), virtual reality (VR) and GIS in water resources information system to solve the problems mentioned above, while Yinzhou District, located in Ningbo, Eastern China, was selected as the research area to develop the system. Firstly, DW was built in this system to integrate hydrological data from ultra-short wave (USW) telemetering system with those from general packet radio service (GPRS) telemetering system, providing the system with desirable data without massive calculation in clients. Secondly, remote sensing image was utilized as the base map of the system, which was also used for three-dimensional animations generation so that watershed characteristics could be demonstrated more intuitively. Finally, with the help of GIS, water resources information system was developed which could meet diverse practical requirements of water conservancy management.